Now another group of politicians in France, the opposition party (UMP), want the spot light, and to hell with the consequences. They have proposed a new law that will make it mandatory for all motorcycle riders and their pillions to wear gloves and have dorsal protection.

The ban on motorcycles built before the yer 2000 is bad, but it's worse, much worse. Already the Parisian police have vetoed the Monday 9th protest while the law is being voted, and this Mayor of Paris has already said she wants to ban in the year 2020 all motorcycles built before 2015. Yes, you read that right, 2015.

#Eicma #Exhibition - When is too much, too much? Being for the first time on the other side of the of the internet, in my sickbed following what was happening at Eicma, I realize that I was drowning. Yes, partially from the sweat from my high fever, but also from all the articles and photos. But what about you????? Is the coverage of Eicma too heavy, too much, or can you not get enough?

#Yamaha #HateRelations #Press - Why is Yamaha being so unprofessional towards some of the press? They are the only ones who act childish and very unprofessional. One year after a crazy and amateur attitude, Yamaha still have not changed their ways. Do they care?

#France #Police #Repression - The top cops are asking the government for more repressive measures so they can get to more citizens. Measures like catching motorcycles speeding, issuing tickets without stopping you and making it mandatory that employers denounce their employees. Crazy world we live in. Orwell was right.

#France #Speeding #Squid - A French squid got arrested for riding his motorcycle at the speed of light, drunk, and with his license plate bent over so that he could not be photographed by radars. What an idiot.

#France #Speeding #Police - The French police are now using a real threat for speeders, even those that go over the limit by a small percentage. An unmarked radar car that catches you passing, and on the opposite side of the road.

Repression at its best, and a very high tax collecting scheme...........

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#France #Law #Legal - It is becoming increasing more and more like a dictatorship over here. I can understand it from the far right, or the far left, but from a Socialist political party, this amounts to a complete and utter contempt for the tax paying public.

The current Socialist government slipped in a change in the law during the summer vacation. The new law will make it impossible to appeal a ticket/judgement. If a judge removes points of your license, and you are in disagreement, tough...........

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#Paris #Elections #Speeds - The elections for next year's Mayor of Paris is heating up, and both side, left and right of the political spectrum, are having their sound bites , saying stuff that will hopefully catch some moments of PR glory.

The main candidate of the Socialist party (the current party for both Paris and the country), Anne Hidalgo, has already expressed her dislike of motorized vehicles, especially motorcycles, and she has been campaigning to reduce lanes and reduce speeds in the country's capital...........

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#London #Hospital #Noise - Strange reaction from the local authorities. The hospital located in Brent, London has apparently been the scene of a few misguided bikers racing their motorcycles alongside the hospital. As we all know, you are expected not to make noise when riding, or driving, alongside a hospital. So no loud pipes, no honking, no revving up, etc.

So what do the local authorities do? See the photo..........

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#Politics #Europe #MOT #Motorcycles - How dirty politics are. For a year or two, some politicians in the European Parliament have tried to make Europe-wide annual technical inspections mandatory for motorcycles. Some countries, notably the UK, already had the rule, but many other did not (like France, The Netherlands and Sweden).

In many countries, the motorcycle riding community took exception to these proposed rules and did their thing; protest rides. And it paid off, many politicians in the countries that would be affected by the proposed law saw the light and voted against the amendments.

So all bikers let out a sigh of relieve. Until the 2nd of July when a few politicians in the European Parliament slipped in the same rules. This while it had been decided that they would wait for a more detailed analysis & study whether these inspections were really needed. That had been the agreement. Two politicians, the MP from Belgium, Isabelle Durant and the Romanian Silvia-Adriana Ticau fought hard to get the law in. You have got to ask yourself, why would they fight that hard? What else is at stake for them privately?

They want an inspection after 4 years, then every 2 years after that. Obviously you need to pay for these inspections, and they would be mandatory. So it is all about money, a lot of it since these are separate businesses run by large companies. Large companies that employ lobbyists.

Obviously we have not heard the end of this, since the law has not been voted in, and the national motorcycle lobby groups are getting ready their response, and it is not going to be a nice one, in fact it might just get ugly.

I have tried to dig up a report I had seen some time ago about the MOT test in the UK. Apparently, if my memory serves me right, the vast majority of motorcycles of any age pass the test with flying colors, and from those that do not, the vast majority are for minor things, like a burned out light bulb. So a waste of time and money.

I will keep you posted on what is going to happen next, but I think the folks in Egypt have had the right idea.

#Spain #Court #Compensation - You know that government rarely have the best interest of its citizens in mind. Usually the contrary, as long as they can get rich and/or more powerful, and when they do get caught doing something they shouldn't, or should, they pretend that it wasn't their fault. It's what has been going wrong in the world lately, and you can see that citizens are revolting against it. Enough is enough.

The latest abuse/mis-actions can be seen in Spain. Back in 2007, a Spanish motorcycle rider lost control of his motorcycle because of the potholes in the motorway. The road is that bad that when hitting one of the holes it means the biker can easily get ejected from his bike, which is what happened. This was not a city road, but a motorway, so speeds are higher, and you have less time to react.

More bad luck for the unfortunate motorcyclist, he hit the guardrail which was one of the old, and very unsafe, rails, killing the biker on the spot:..........

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You don't become world champion motorcycle racing, be it MotoGP, Superbike or any motorsport, by accident. You don't hope of on a race motorcycle at the "ripe" age of 18 and go and win races. There's virtually no sport that allows that. Whether you're racing motorcycles, cars, skiing downhill, swimming, horse riding, running, etc, you need one thing, and one thing only: YOU NEED TO START YOUNG.

The younger you are when you start competing in your chosen sport, the better you will be. Very few people will question that tactic. Valentino Rossi started racing at the tender age of 5 (karts, but quickly went to motorcycles). Casey Stoner started with motorcycle racing at the age of 4. Jorge Lorenzo started riding a home built motorcycle at the age of 3 years. Very few champions and professionals will make it to the top if they did not start really young.

Before we continue, watch this video...........

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You know you're in trouble when politicians start talking. Grandstanding is their way of trying to get more votes, more power and therefore more money, and nowhere is this more visible when politicians touch the motorcycle world. The motorcyclists are a small group of voters, so we do not represent a threat, so we're easy pickings for politicians who want to make a name for themselves, at our expense.

In Europe, there's currently a heated debate on making motorcycles go through a mandatory annual technical inspection. Experts are quite clear, as is the motorcycle world, that it's a waste of money. Most countries have agreed.

But still you'll find politicians who "believe" they are right and the rest of the world is wrong. Here is a video of Brian Simpson, a British member of the European parliament. Apart from being a MP, unfortunately he is also the Chair of the European Transport Committee, in other words, he has more power over the motorcycle world than most politicians.

In this video, he's calling motorcycles "DEATH CARRIERS"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you imagine, this "elected" official, who has to look after the interest of amongst other bikers, thinks we ride on death carriers. This man suffers from terminal CRI. There is no hope in this world when men like him have the power. An obese man, who obviously is not healthy (mind & body), thinks he can judge bikers? What did we do to deserve this man?

A few days ago the French socialist government announced with big ceremony that they would be spending billions of Euros to make "The Greater Paris"; a project for Paris and the extended suburbs. To do that, they would need to beef up the crumbling transportation infrastructure, mainly the metro and commuter rail, and to do that, they would need to spend 30 BILLION Euros. And that in a country that is laden with debt, so much so that it would make the Japanese look debt free.

So you can guess what comes next... the government is going to look at us, the honest hard working tax payer, to finance this idea. And even if you don't live in Paris or its suburbs, pay you will.

But raising the tax rates even more is political suicide (the tax rate will shortly be set at 75%, yes, you read it right, seventy-five %), and the last thing the powers want is a spring uprising and then the chopping off heads. So they're now planning the next best thing; raise the price of fines!

A few days after announcing the Greater Paris project (which goes until 2030), the politicians now want to raise the price of the fine you get when you park badly, or forget to feed to parking-monster (which is easy to do since you can only feed them 2 hours at a time). Currently when fined you pay €17, shortly, if the extension gets approved, it will become €35, double what it is now.

The trouble is the fines are for all of France since it's a police matter. You can not fine someone in Paris for an amount A and someone elsewhere in France an amount B. That is illegal. So people living outside Paris will be paying enormous high fines to subsidize a project they will never benefit from. Or, they de-penalize parking fines and outsource it to private organizations, which will probably make fines even more expensive.

All in all, it really looks like this government does not know what to do. It's stumbling in the dark, bumping into objects while trying to find the bathroom and on the way, loose the content of their bladder. With all the rich people and celebrities fleeing the country because of ridiculous tax rates, with record unemployment, with companies closing down factories because of the power the unions have and the cost of having employees, the only thing successive governments will have left is higher and higher taxes. But I'm ranting....

So back to the subject. If they really want to make traffic fluid in Paris without major influx on money, all they need to do is promote motorcycles and scooters. Make more parking available in Paris, allow motorcycles to ride in the bus lanes and officially allow them to split lanes, and suddenly there's going to be less traffic jams, less pollution and a lot more happy people. But €30 BILLION is way to attractive a sum of money for some. Politicians need to think about their retirement too.

The elections for the Parisian mayor will be held next year and already the battles have started. The current mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a man who has done a lot of things AGAINST the motorcycle world, is stepping down. Several candidates have declared themselves, and funny enough they are all women.

The biggest contender is Anne Hidalgo, the current 1st deputy mayor, and the person behind all the current mayor's anti-motorcycle movements.

Already she has mentioned in her programs that she's planning even more drastic measures to curb motorcycles inside Paris (aside from the older motorcycles not allowed in the city, requiring mandatory annual technical inspection of motorcycles, no using of bus lanes). One of her pet peeves is the fact that motorcycles take up parking spaces in Paris. She wants to limit the number of parking spaces allocated to bikes in the country's capital. And that when there's already not enough spaces, and motorcycles are no longer allowed to park on sidewalks...........

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Things always happen when governments change. One law made during the last government gets changed with the new one. And that is what happened here.

Two laws had been created by the previous conservative government, the mandatory wearing of 150 cm2 of high-visibility armband for motorcycle riders and the mandatory breathalyzer kit in your car or motorcycle. Both laws had been heavily criticized by associations and people alike. Even the European Commission intervened saying that the laws were illegal (see related below). And both laws have been suspended.

Here's what this is all about...........

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The extreme motophobic and socialist mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, has often been heard about his views on cars and more importantly, motorcycles. He is the man that has started the rent-a-bicycle operations and now even has a rent-an-electric-car thing going in Paris. He has closed many of the lanes in Paris, dedicated them to bus (motorcycles are not allowed to take bus lanes) and he has placed an extensive tramway in the French capital, taking away more lanes in the process. There's also the eternal struggle to get parking spots, both for cars and motorcycles. There just isn't close enough to what is needed in terms of parking spots, but then it's a ticket bonanza for the city, reaping in fortunes for parking tickets. So you know why he's not creating more parking spaces.

But that's not enough for the Parisian mayor. He has now announced that he's going to go many steps further to eliminate traffic from one of world's most beautiful cities, and shortly one of world's most empty.

OLD VEHICLES WILL BE FORBIDDEN TO ENTER

Motorcycles that are 10 years old or older will not be allowed into the city...........

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I've really got to give this guy a lot of respect. Knowing what it is like to be taking a lot of gear with you to take photos (like the recent Intermot), you are worn down to the bone. But this guy not only has to take all his gear with him, but also his wheelchair, and he has to hold on for dear life sitting behind the motorcycle. And then take photos in a war zone.

Kickstarter and Fundable are great sites to help you create a motorcycle project with crowd-funding. Several good ideas have seen the light of day (including the reviewed Screaming Banshee horn) because of these websites that allow the general public to fund startups without taking equity. But people need get something in return for their money.

And that is where to problems lies with several of these ideas looking for money. You need to offer something valuable in return.

Take this project for example: Rockin' Rebel on Kickstarter is someone who makes beautiful wooden rocking chairs in the shape of a motorcycle. Really pretty... So you'd expect people to help this guy out by providing him with funds to get proper tools to make more of them. But at the time of writing this, he has gathered $200 of the $50,000 required, and only 8 days left.

Living in a world dominated by socialists and left-wing green parties, plus an explosive growth of motorcycles and scooters in the big cities, can bring a lot of problems, and some of them are not that evident.

One of the biggest headaches for both bikers and city planners is that when the motorcycle market expands very rapidly, the problem is "where do you park your motorcycle?".

Some 15 years ago, it wasn't a problem. You could ride up to the sidewalk and park your bike there as long as you didn't hinder pedestrians. But then 1) the treehuggers came, 2) the socialsts started running Paris and 3) the number of motorcycles and scooters coming into the big cities exploded. In Paris, parking a motorcycle on the sidewalk, became illegal, though it had always been the case, but until now it was tolerated. No longer. Parking tickets, and even removals of "badly" parked bikes have become the norm.

You may have heard it on the news, but France has a new government, and it doesn't look good. The country has gone from the right to the left, i.e., a socialist government.

The current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had been trying hard to get rid of the debt left to him by previous socialist governments, and with the state of the world economic crisis, was having problems. This made him very unpopular, but that is always what happens when someone tries to solve difficult problems; they must make hard decisions and unless you run a dictatorship, the people will not like it. Unfortunately, he did not like motorcycles and their riders much either, so that was another strike against him, albeit a minor one for the majority of the population.

The new president of France, Francois Hollande, is a true-blooded socialist. Despite the country having an enormous debt, he has already promised to hire an extra 65,000 civil servants, to tax anyone earning over €1 million with a whopping 75% tax rate, to bring back the minimum retirement age from 62 to 60 (Sarkozy increased it since the retirement funds are going bankrupt), and to increase minimum wages. All that while there is no money.

So how is he going to do this? Unless he is Jesus, and can split bread in more and more parts, the only way is to increase further taxes, both revenue and corporate. He has also stated that he plans to un-hire, un-appoint, all appointments made by the previous government. Which means less and less companies will be coming to France. It'll mean an exodus of wealthy people and companies that are making profits. But at least, he has said he will not hinder immigrations, so we'll be getting plenty of folks from countries worse off than France. And then things will go belly-up and Greece will look like a well-run country compared to France.

But at least there's a positive side to this event; Francois Hollande is a biker; he rides scooters, and he does it a lot (just look at the photo at his left hand fingers, the mark of a veteran rider).

So at least, he knows what it is means being on two wheels, so hopefully he'll be more clement towards us.

So apart from the motorcycle side of things, economical and political things do not look good. The French have voted with their hearts, not their brains, and they'll pay for it later.

Anyone want to hire a motorcycle journalist who wants to live outside of France. Any honest proposition will be considered with care. Only places I'll not go and live is Nigeria (I lived there, don't want to again), Syria (for the time being) and possibly Sudan.

The Dutch motorcycle association, KNMV, has launched an app for motorcycle riders for iPhone and Android devices that will tell you if the weather is good for riding your motorcycle.

So far, so good. The app is free, but only for members (you need to enter your membership number to activate). That is bad!! For an official organization that looks after the motorcycle world in The Netherlands, something like this should be available to all bikers, not just members.

The proposed bill in the USA, called SOPA, is the biggest threat to the internet which we have seen since the internet started. SOPA will allow companies to shutdown websites, like this one, without a proper and legal due process. Targeted sites will not be able to defend themselves, and you will see many sites disappear.

You can do something about it! Whether you live in the USA, or in another country, here is how to act, and here is what you can do! #SOPASTRIKE Stop #SOPA

A very dangerous idea coming from TomTom. The Dutch GPS manufacturer has released a new service, called Search & Go LIVE, it allows the TomTom GPS to connect to the internet (like Twitter and Expedia) on the go...

In other words, more distractions for car drivers, and more motorcycle accidents because a SUV was playing with the GPS while driving.

Message to TomTom: MAKE INTERNET ACCESS NOT AVAILABLE WHEN THE VEHICLE IS MOVING!

The French government, like all governments, speaks with two (at least) tongues.....

On one side they are reprimanding motorcycle riders for not being safe, and on the other, they have withdrawn their financial support for the motorcycle rests tops (Relais Motard Calmos) at the big motorcycle events. In other words, give us your money because you are not safe, but keep riding without stopping, and kill yourselves.

The New Minister of Interior for France held a meeting about motorcycle "safety" (read "how to get more money out of motorcycle riders"), and invited the whole world ... except the FFMC - the association for motorcycle riders - an association for the defense of biker rights.

They are planning to get even stricter with bikers, and will try anything in their power to bleed us dry. It's got nothing to do with safety, and all to do with money.

Prices are going up, and will not come down anymore. And it's not just petrol, though we'll be seeing enormous price hikes win before the end of 2012, with peak oil production being reach by the end of next year.

Other raw materials, like rubber are going to go through the roof. Already most tire manufacturers have announced price hikes of 8%, and more to come.

But iron is going up 30% this year. Our beloved motorcycles are going to be more expensive to buy, and much more expensive to run.

The French latest trampling over civil rights comes under the banner "security".

Their latest law allows the government to sell DMV data (car/motorcycle registration data) to 3rd parties. Not only will you be telemarkeded to death, but now the criminals will know what expensive vehicles you have. The DMV data will become a shopping list of thieves.

With the upcoming electric motorcycle craze, with prizes going down and specifications going up, will the traditional motorcycle dealer survive the next 10 years.

Already, electric motorcycles are being sold in areas that traditional motorcycles are not. The obvious one, Brammo and BestBuy, but we also see the first all electric motorcycle dealers coming to town.

Bajaj, KTM and Kawasaki are in an ideal position to join forces to conquer the motorcycle world. They are all already tied up in some shape or another, and could complement each other in the global market place, making it a force to be reckoned with.

Add to that the fact that Volkswagen is on the motorcycle manufacturer trail, look at the Bajaj logo and the Volkswagen logo, and we might just end up with world's largest motorcycle manufacturer: VolksKawaBajKTM (or whatever the name).

FEMA are opposed to the ridiculous recommendations made by the European Commission to make our European roads safer, specially for motorcycles.

In essence, the EC wants you to pay much more for buying your motorcycle, not allow you to put after--market stuff on it, and basically make your life as miserable as passible so that you give up motorcycle altogether, and follow the masses.

Jeremy Clarkson is at it again, insulting the whole world and his dog. Nothing is sacred for him, and he might just have passed all levels of decency.

He called the UK Prime Minister a "Scottish one eye idiot", referring to Gordon Brown's handicap (he has only one eye). He also said it didn't matter if the French motorcycle stuntmen died, since they were only French. Further, he called his fans "apes".

His brand of "humor" is getting worse. He is very popular, and you should see his "prose" as entertainment, but these things just can't be said.

Because of a beef dispute between Europe and the USA, it might become impossible to buy an Europe motorcycle shortly.
The US Government is looking at hiking the import duty on European motorcycle to 100%! Meaning your Ducati, BMW, Aprilia et al, will cost you double.

The European Commission (with agreement of the European Motorcycle association FEMA) have announced that as off 2011, all cars must have Daytime Running Lights (DRL).

It's a blow for motorcycle safety, since until now, in most European countries, it was the fact that motorcycles had their lights on during the day that enabled us to be seen by cars. Now, despite the fact that the lights are "special", our safety margin has diminished.

In the European Mobility Week (designed to promote better transportation in cities), motorcycles are seen as a problem, not a solution. This is dangerous, since eventually the politicians are going to outlaw motorcycles!!!!

Read the article, and at the bottom is an email form you can fill in and start asking questions!

So Harley-Davidson and MV Agusta are getting married, and they haven't even been engaged.

To me, here on the sidelines, it looks like a marriage made in hell. What can Agusta bring to Harley? Harley is already on shaky financial grounds. Someone with a double PhD in economics please explain....

Many of us think that if there's a known problem with your motorcycle, that the manufacturer will do anything in their power to contact you and repair your issue, especially when your safety and life is at risk....

Well... you're wrong! Not all manufacturers make sure that their recalls are heard by all. Some don't say anything. Some say the minimum. At least in some countries, there are central databases that you can check, but many countries don't even have that.

The TT-Assen motorcycle race circuit have caved in to demands from the locals! The organizers have scrapped 20 races so far, most of them were motorcycles using standard street legal pipes!!

1) how dare people complain about motorcycle noise on a circuit when the circuit was there before they were even borne. 2) why does the Dutch authority want to stop folks using the circuit to race ? Would they prefer them to race on the streets? 3) why did the TT-Assen organizers cave in so quickly?

The MotoGP and Superbike races are not cancelled, but that will not take long before they are....!

Our fellow motorcycle riders in Queensland, Australia are facing a tough new law starting July, forcing them to ride a car for one year before being allowed to pass a motorcycle test. Have they gone bonkers down under ?

The French government is stepping up their efforts to enrichen themselves (they say it's for your own safety). More radars, no more warning, average speeds calculated on autoroutes, etc etc. Living hell !!! Vive La Revolution !

Just because one, famous American football player (Ben Roethlisberger) has had a motorcycle accident, the media has not stopped writing about it for days. It is totally overshadowing all other stories. Get a life !!

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